Proposed Research

We plan to design and test key components of a data retrieval system
suitable for ocean bottom seismic stations and mid-ocean ridge observatories.
Data would be telemetered ashore from expendable data capsules that
are released periodically. The technology will be particularly useful
for seismic stations deployed at high latitudes where a submarine
cable or a co-located surface buoy is impractical. Each capsule
will have sufficient memory to store all of the data collected over
periods of several months, but the data telemetered (which costs
about 10 cents per kbyte to send ashore using the Iridium system)
will typically be a subset chosen for its importance.

Originally published: January 1, 2003

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